Don’t you just love those messages in your inbox that start “I’m so impressed by your work at [Company] and I’d love to connect to find ways to collaborate”? Or: I’m not opposed to advertising. I’m not opposed to getting … Read More
psychology
Cask-strength positioning for solo consultants
AI is all the rage (and what can I say, I find it very helpful), but for many consultants, AI is just making difficult work more streamlined, instead of transforming the nature of the work. What can transform your business** … Read More
Authenticity is the currency
A lot of folks in marketing overuse the term “authenticity”, like it’s some kind of commodity you can fake, and thereby increase sales. But authenticity is precious, which is why so many people are trying to fake it. This goes … Read More
Complexity is the enemy
When we’re deep into our field, we sometimes get so deep that clients and prospects have trouble understanding. Think of a doctor describing an operation to another doctor, rather than to the patient. This is the curse of expertise. But there’s another form of … Read More
Everyone updates the fine print, but what about your website headline?
Happy 2025. Many of you probably updated the copyright notice at the bottom of your website to include the current year. (Although I am not a lawyer of any kind, let alone a copyright lawyer, my understanding is that you … Read More
Prep for 2025 and vow to do less
If you read and/or listen to a lot of business advice, the general idea is to do more. Not to say this is wrong (necessarily), but the main issue is that we don’t have enough time and/or focus to properly … Read More
Do you own your own business, or does it own you?
Most of us start our own business because we want more freedom, more control, more spaciousness to pursue our purpose. Sometimes, though, it seems like the business starts owning us– even more than the corporate jobs we left. It’s hard … Read More
Sales and marketing automation vs. organization
There are lots of tools for sales and marketing automation, some quite powerful and effective, in the appropriate situation. But all of these tools will fail if you need to have real relationships and you try to “outsource” your side … Read More
When does a solo consultant need a CRM?
I get this question a lot, sometimes from folks just starting out as a consultant, often as a corporate refugee, and sometimes from folks who have been consulting for a while and maybe even tried a fancy CRM that felt … Read More